The Ultimate Guide To Sets In Python

The set class is one of the key data structures in Python. It is an unordered collection of elements without duplicates. It represents, to a certain degree, a mathematical set, and many of the commonly used mathematical operations for sets exist in Python. Often the operations for sets are much faster than alternative operations with lists, thus, to write effective code, sets are essential. In this article, I will explain the ins and outs of the set class. Let’s get to it.

Initialization

There are two ways to create a set object in Python: using set(iterable) or putting elements, separated by a comma, inside curly braces{ ... } . The exception is if the curly braces are empty, i.e. {} , then a dictionary will be created and not an empty set. For an empty set, use set(). Note that the order of elements doesn’t matter and duplicates will be removed.

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